Latest Posts
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Keep on the Sunny Side
I know plants don’t have brains, but sometimes I wonder… I tried again this year to grow a row of sunflowers along the eastern section of our backyard fence. I purposedly planted more than one type of seed, hoping for a dazzling and diverse display of tall, yellow-petaled sun-lovers. The first leafy stalk to escape… Continue reading
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Uprooted for Good
I like to plant seasonal vegetables and herbs in terra cotta pots so I can try new things (and limit my risk of failure) in a small space. When my potted experiments die back at the end of a season, I just pull the spent leaves and stems out of the dirt and fill it… Continue reading
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Banksy Meets The Gleaners
When I started this blog last year, I was hoping to give expression to the fascinating dramas I regularly witness among the plants, bugs, wildlife – and now chickens – that make their home in my backyard. I was familiar with the word “glean”, as defined in the Cambridge Dictionary: “to collect information in small… Continue reading
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Potato Gleanings
Potato plants make good role models. In fact, I wish I could be more like a potato. Potatoes grow steadily and purposefully under the ground until they are mature and ready to be used for good purposes. They are low-maintenance, easy to grow and offer a high return on investment. For every seedling you plant,… Continue reading
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The Rest of the Story*
You can’t plant an old tree. Trees earn their designation as “old” by growing in place over decades, accumulating rings of life and surviving unpredictable cycles of drought, flood, wind, freezing temperatures and heat. Old trees are irreplaceable. You can plant a new tree of the exact same species and variety, but it will never… Continue reading
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Afternoons with Sister Mercy
After a little bunny nibbled his way through our sweet potato crop last fall, I decided to try again with a different type of potato. I cleared the garden bed, raked in several loads of compost from our backyard bin and planted red potato seedlings in neat little rows in the dirt. As soon as… Continue reading
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Aloe There!
Something wasn’t right with Fluff. Our normally energetic and ever-curious young chicken was standing away from the others, not eating and lethargic. When I took a closer look, I noticed her comb had a grayish hue and it was drooping to one side. As I wrote in a previous post, Shelter from the Cold, a… Continue reading
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Being 6-7
Once again, it is a time of transitions in my backyard. My cold-weather-loving camellia bushes are still filled with late-season blooms, but most of their petals are starting to brown or just wilt and fall to the ground. A few months ago, the number of blossoms on those bushes were far outnumbered by nascent buds,… Continue reading
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Cold-Plunging Cows
What do cold-plunging cows, the Winter Olympics and National Parks have in common? You might be surprised. Last Saturday, I was on a group bike ride in Jefferson County, a rural community east of Tallahassee. It’s a great place to ride because there are fewer cars and beautiful stretches of farmland, orchards and sprawling pastures.… Continue reading
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Spring Matters
I normally take the transition from one season to the next in stride, making the traditional adjustments to accommodate changes in the weather (summer clothes out, winter clothes in, e.g.) and then moving forward with the regular routines of my life. It’s a fairly predictable cycle, year after year. But this year’s winter has seemed… Continue reading
Glean Daily 